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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A software
engineer at America Online was arrested Wednesday and charged with stealing
AOL's subscriber list and selling it to someone sending spam e-mail, federal
prosecutors in New York said. =

According to the criminal complaint, J=
ason
Smathers of Harpers Ferry, W. Va., used his inside knowledge of AOL's compu=
ter
system to steal a list of 92 million AOL customer account "screen
names," and then sold them to Sean Dunaway, who is not an AOL employee=
.

Dunaway, of Las Vegas, NV., was accuse=
d of
using the list to promote his own Internet gambling business and also sold =
the
list to other spammers for $52,000, according to David Kelley, the U.S.
attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The complaint further charges that Dun=
away
later paid Smathers $100,000 for an updated version of AOL's customer list.=

Megan Gaffney, a spokeswoman with the =
U.S.
Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, confirmed that both men
appeared in court Wednesday.

The two men each face a maximum senten=
ce of
five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to prosecutors.

=

An AOL spokesman said Smathers has been
fired from the company.

"We deeply regret what has taken =
place
and are thoroughly reviewing and strengthening our internal procedures as a=
result
of this investigation and arrest," AOL said in a statement.

=

According to the complaint, Smathers u=
sed
another employee's ID in April and May 2003 to assemble a complete list of
AOL's customer account screen names, zip codes, telephone numbers and credit
card types.

"(But) AOL has uncovered no infor=
mation
indicating that this theft involved member credit card or password informat=
ion
stored by AOL," said the statement from AOL.

AOL, the world's biggest Internet serv=
ice
provider, is owned by Time Warner Inc., as is CNN/Money.